I’m finally for the first time in Australia, on a far continent of kangaroos! I arrived first in Sydney, famous for its beaches and the opera house.
Sydney was more boring than I expected. There are not many sightseeing attractions, but fuck that: you can sunbathe on the beaches of Maine or Bondi Beach all day long. Where else I would recommend to go in Sydney? Have a dinner in the Opera’s fine restaurant, take a morning run in the Botanical Garden with stunning views of the Downtown and the Opera, enjoy the sunset with a wonderful cocktail in the bar on the top floor of the Shangri-La skyscraper (note: the prices bite!), Go to the Chinese gallery of modern art (the best gayllery/museum in Syndey!), look at Australian animals at the zoo (probably one of the best zoos I’ve ever visited) and take one of the ferries to admire the monumentality of the bay and architecture in Sydney. Two things I was very disappointed in Sydney: gay bars and the Museum of Modern Art just opposite the Opera.
However, I visited Australia not because of Sydney. It’s time to go to the highest point (and for the locals: the summit 🙂 of Australia: to Mount Kosciuszko. The mountain itself was not as interesting as the road to it. For the first time in my life I drove the car on the left-hand road and I initially made several mistake, driving on the right side of the road just out of habit.
On the highways, I was surprised that drivers do not keep the last right lane free for faster transport. Trucks were driving on all lanes! Cars overtook from both left and right, just like in the United States. Australia is trying to change that now and I saw a few plates asking drivers to keep to the left lane, but many of these requests were simply ignored. I was also surprised that the bike lanes were laid right on the highways! But we did not notice the cyclists, only the corpses of kangaroos or some other wild wierd animals.
On the way to Thredbo, from where the hiking trail to Mount Kosciusko starts, we stopped and had lunch in the capital of Australia, Canberra. Canberra can be seen in jsut one day: the city is small and the main attractions are the Parliament building with a high flagpole and a impressively giant Australian flag (warm hello to Dushanbe and Baku!). Well, in short, Canberra is a bit boring and we just went on after the lunch.
The road from Sydney to Thredbo with a stop in Kosciusko took all day. This road would be longer if we drove along the coast. You can get to Thredbo also by a Greyhound bus, but it leaves very early and travels for a very long time. It’s just better to rent a car and stay flexible with time.